“Anyone interested in signing this QB..?” The unbelievable draft night story of Tony Romo
Follow Us
Tony Romo is one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever suited up for the Dallas Cowboys. The QB is the all-time leader for the Cowboys in terms of passing yards and touchdowns with 34,138 yards and 248 TDs respectively.
The star QB played for 14 years, however, what is a lesser known fact is his draft night story. Romo was an undrafted player out of Eastern Illinois. His alma mater inducted him into the College Football Hall of Game last January. Romo’s college career was nothing short of a dream as he recorded 8,212 passing yards and a conference-record of 85 TD passes.
Before the night of the 2003 NFL Draft, Romo did not even receive an invite to attend that year’s combine, he got a late invite to be an extra QB to throw passes to the other top prospects instead.
The QB kept getting assurances from the then Assistant Head Coach of the Cowboys Sean Payton that they were interested in him, apart from this, Denver Broncos were also eyeing the QB. However, neither of the teams picked him during the draft.
On the night of the 2003 draft, when all the teams had picked their key players and were heading out, the environment was rather chaotic. Many players had ended up being undrafted, amidst this chaos, one of the scouts of the Green Bay Packers yelled out, “Anyone interested in signing this QB from Eastern Illinois named Tony Romo? He’s from Wisconsin, big Packers fan and loves Brett (Favre).“
From an undrafted player to a HOFer: The Tony Romo story
Little did they know that this undrafted QB from Easter Illinois would go on to become one of the greatest QBs. The Dallas Cowboys signed the undrafted player and kept him as a backup behind their starting QBs Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson. In 2004, the Cowboys released Hutchinson, Romo went through a rough phase during the 2004-05 season as he was almost cut from the roster due to allegations of substance abuse.
It was not until the 2006 season that Romo took his first regular season snap as a QB, he replaced the starter Drew Bledsoe (yes, the same person who lost his job to Tom Brady) later on that season and became the starting QB and from that point onwards everything else is history…
Also read: “We DRAFT you husband & wife”: Couple gets married on stage…
Also read: “Nick Foles appreciates it,” Chicago Bears release former Super Bowl MVP…
Stay Updated!
Sumedh Joshi
(2317 Articles Published)